Yes. If you start as Lyn all the EXP/items carry over to the Eliwood/Hector part. If you start as E/H they get leveled up a little bit and they get some basic equipment to start but it's not nearly what you could get by playing through the section. What I did was play through it once and save a permanent file on the last chapter, so any time I wanted to start a new E/H game I just had to finish one map as opposed to 10.

Thanks, that's what I ended up doing after reading your post. Unfortunately my team, <Fucked by RNG>, had crappy level-ups ('cept Florina). I may as well have just started on Hector's story to begin with. I don't think Lyn went up a single strength stat.

I'm on 17x in Hectors story and I partially rescind my comments. Kent/Sain did get screwed but I usually don't use them. Lyn kind of got screwed, but only in the strength area. Guy has had incredibly good stat ups *knocks on wood* as well as a few others, so I decided to keep it after all haha.